Gaming systems currently available on the market are capable of playing game discs, music CDs, and movie DVDs from a disc drive. For example, the Playstation® 2 gaming system from Sony Corporation provides the ability to play games, music, and video titles from a disc inserted in the console. These gaming systems have limited internal data storage capacity. Typically, the internal data storage is used to store system and configuration information, such as the local time, the language preference of the user, and other settings. Other data, such as saved game data and other game-specific data, is generally stored on a memory device that is external to the game console. For example, memory units that are inserted into a handheld game controller store game information for later retrieval by a game console. Existing gaming systems do not contain an internal non-removable hard disk drive for storing saved games and other information.
Microsoft Corporation recently announced its Xbox™ video gaming system that is equipped with a hard disk drive to enhance gaming, and broadband connectivity to facilitate online gaming. With these additions, significant amounts of data (e.g., saved game data from multiple game titles and multiple users of the gaming system) can be stored within the video gaming system using the hard disk drive. This new internal storage capability creates new issues with respect to storing and segregating different types of data on the hard disk drive. Further, data associated with a particular game title should be protected from inadvertent or intentional corruption by another game title or application.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved data handling mechanism for gaming systems that includes an internal data storage device, such as a hard disk drive.